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Selecting your health and safety partner: A guide to choosing the right level of support
A practical guide for business leaders weighing in-house, ad hoc, retained, and competent person partnership models, with the criteria for choosing a provider that scales with your business.
What's inside this guide
This Opus Safety whitepaper helps business leaders choose the right level of health and safety support, now and as the business grows. It weighs the strengths and limitations of the four most common safety management models and sets out the criteria that separate a true competent person partner from off-the-shelf advice.
- Comparing in-house, ad hoc external, retained advisor, and competent person partnership models
- Recognising when it is time to review or expand your safety support
- Key selection criteria: cultural fit, competence and credibility, flexibility, and partnership approach
- The legal difference between a competent person and competent advice under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- What to expect from a digital compliance platform, occupational health, training, and HR support
- Side-by-side comparison of a competent person partnership versus standard competent advice
Use this guide to weigh the trade-offs of each model and select a provider that protects your people, supports growth, and embeds compliance into your culture.
Health & safety insights
Guidance, updates and practical advice for your sector.
DSE assessments: the duty and doing it at scale
DSE means display screen equipment. What a DSE assessment must cover under the 1992 Regulations, home and hybrid workers, and doing it at scale.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: duties, assessment and TILE
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: avoid, assess and reduce hazardous handling. What TILE stands for, and whether a weight limit exists.
Duty to manage asbestos: who holds it, and what it requires
Whoever is responsible for maintaining or repairing non-domestic premises holds the duty to manage asbestos. What regulation 4 requires and when to survey.
Best occupational health providers for UK employers in 2026: six compared
Six UK occupational health providers compared by fit: national clinic networks, safety-critical medics, SME specialists and on-site surveillance.
What a retained health and safety service includes
A retained health and safety service means ongoing access to a competent person. What it includes, what it can exclude, and what stays your legal duty.
Outsourced health and safety or an in-house appointment?
Employ if you need someone present, retain if you need competence you lack. What decides it, what it costs, and why neither moves your legal liability.
PUWER and machinery guarding: the duty holder's guide
PUWER is the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Who the duty holder is, what regulation 11 requires for guarding, and the records to keep.
RIDDOR meaning: what is reportable, and what is not
RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. What you must report, by when, and what is excluded.
Opus Safety compared with Citation
Citation health and safety and Opus Safety side by side: site visits, who writes the assessments, software, phone cover and Citation's advice guarantee.
How to choose a health and safety consultancy
How to choose a health and safety consultancy: the competence and time tests in regulation 7 of the MHSWR 1999, the questions to ask, and the red flags.
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